Monday, 24 December 2012

I
just wanted to send an email to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new
year.

This
year we have moved the Better Off Out campaign forward and the notion that the
UK should leave the EU is now a talking point not just in the papers but also in
Parliament. I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped us in this
endeavour. This includes a big thank you to all the distinguished speakers that
we and The Freedom Association have had at our events this year, as well as all
those who have supported us through their parliamentary activities.

I
would also like to thank you, the members, for helping us drive forward the idea
of how the UK would be better off free from EU membership. Through attending our
events, writing to your respective Members of Parliament and donating to the
campaign you have helped raise awareness and we could not operate in the way
that we do without this support.

We
will continue to campaign for an independent UK - free to make its own
choices and enhance its global outlook - and hope that we can count on
your continued support.

For
a final thought I'd like to recommend that you consider voting for Mark Reckless
MP as the Taxpayers' Alliance's Pin-Up of the year.

Mark
did a sterling job in successfully tabling the amendment to the parliamentary
motion which saw the House of Commons demand a cut in the UK's contribution to
the EU's Budget. This idea was supported by the Better Off Out campaign and many
of you wrote and phoned your respective Members of Parliament in support.
Voting
for this online poll closes today and you can cast you vote by going to the
TPA's website:

Sunday, 23 December 2012

I would not normally publish a piece that may be covered by the subjudice laws, but this email is as toxic as it is enlightening. The venom has to be tasted along with the evidence, that of the CCTV footage taken at that time and relevant to the veracity or otherwise of these statements.The reason why I have published is the "Stephen Nolan" (5Live radio, Sat 2200hrs) discussion last evening with the Labour bigot and bully. All I can say Stephen is that your contributor must have been sat on his face because his contribution came directly out of his arse.Some have been directly effected by Police actions and not to the good - so when the families of 96 Scousers have to wait 23 years just to get an impartial investigation into the deaths of their loved ones, it is tantamount to the owners of the Spirit of Free Enterprise declaring that their victims were cult figures partaking in a mass suicide. The allegations, evidence and the police involvement in these as the only Investigating Authority with credibility, has become risible as the Police again protect themselves against substantiated allegations.The Police Defence League immediately form and use every trick in the book to protect those guilty of some heinous crime allowed to hide within their ranks. Take the Officer who was responsible for the death of the London alcoholic Ian Tomlinson. I deliberately use the inflammatory description of a deceased man because he had a debilitating disease and the media and the police used this information irrespective of the fact that the Police had employed a known thug. Where is/was the Duty of Care that the police hold to Ian Tomlinson? It was quickly and conveniently hidden under the more palatable truth(sic) of the dead man's failings rather than the culpability of the Met.Let me just counter that with one instance, as the Police keep reminding us that they are the only ones protecting society from all the ills of terrorism and such like. I was on deployment to Ulster and was tasked to overlook one of the most incendiary parts of that wonderful province. We were six as a unit, not all from the same source. We spent ten weeks or more in cramped and hostile conditions spying on the then IRA under the leadership of Seán Mac Stíofáin, a London Mafia figure with his own agenda. Needless to say that the task was dangerous and it is probably illegal for me to retell as it will still be covered by the Official Secrets Act. What I remember more than the deployment was the speed with which the MoD dispensed with three of the group and they disappeared into the ether. It wasn't unusual for service personnel to get sudden drafts, but when I was driving back from Scotland after a subsequent deployment to the Burning Province, I happened to pull alongside one of the trio on the Old Road leading into Bristol. It was not what he told me that stuck in my mind, but what he omitted.

Have things changed so drastically that the Police are no longer answerable for their misconduct? That Toothless fairy the IPCC is about as much use as the Press Complaints Commission and the Charities Commission. There is NO independent scrutiny into the Police and what redress there is goes through the Police's own vetting system, like a alcoholic being given the keys to Bargains Booze. It is akin to the Parliamentarians running the rule over their own expenses, it is bound to lead to further problems. The Tommy Atkins syndrome is as vicious today as it always has been and the culpability lies with politicians and those who give them blind obedience.

Saturday, 22 December 2012

Conversion to Islam or death "- Iraqi Grand Ayatollah adopt fatwa against ChristiansShiite Grand Ayatollah of Iraq adopt before Christmas fatwa against Christians. They either convert to Islam or they are of death (Baghdad) On the same day that was in Baghdad the rebuilt Syrian Catholic Cathedral inaugurated newly enacted a Shiite Grand Ayatollah against the Christians of Iraq issued a fatwa. The Christians had to convert to Islam or be worthy of death. The Catholic Cathedral was on 31 October 2010 scene of a bloody attack become. An al-Qaeda commando attacked the church, when Christians there celebrated a Mass. 58 Catholics were killed in the attack, including two priests.The Iraqi Shiite Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ahmad al-Hassani al Baghdadi gave his call to murder Christians in an interview with Egyptian television station Al Baghdadia. Al Baghdadi, who is one of the most radical representatives of the Islamic Jihad, denounced the Christians as polytheists and friends of the Zionists. The requirement Al Baghdadis to the Christian minority in Iraq is "conversion to Islam or death." The women and girls of the Christians "can legitimately regarded as the Muslim women," said the Grand Ayatollah. Al Baghdadi, who comes from Najaf in Iraq, one of the "holy cities" of Shiite Islam, now lives in Syria, where he supports the armed struggle of the Islamists.The Catholics of Baghdad called the fatwa as "extremely serious". What effect it will have leaves, predict. Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, took before the consecration of the cathedral. In his homily he said of the 2010 murder of Christians Cathedral, the tears and the blood of the martyrs is the seed that will bring forth new fruits. Cardinal Sandri remained at a five-day visit to Iraq, in order to strengthen the faith of Christians in the country.

Tommy.

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I: O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away"; But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play, The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.I went into a theatre as sober as could be,They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls! For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside"; But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide, The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide, O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleepIs cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bitIs five times better business than paradin' in full kit. Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?" But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll, The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll, O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints; While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind", But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind, There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our faceThe Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace. For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot; An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please; An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Rudyard Kipling.

21 December 2012 10:11:00 GMT

To friends, Merry Christmas and deepest thoughts for the Boys and Girls- British, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders - fighting our corner, with heartfelt thanks

Thursday, 20 December 2012

Why are councils all round the country sending this request-form
to Britain’s most vulnerable, our disabled War Pensioners?They want to know something they already have
access to, Private Information.So why
are they asking for permission to go to the MoD for all the details on
registered War Pensioners?If there is
nothing untoward then perhaps the councils should include a complete
explanation as to why they need this extra and intrusive data?If they are not willing to undertake this,
then they ought to answer a more simple question, how much is this needless
exercise costing the tax-payer?With
most council’s placing a “disregard” on War Pensioners entitlements, and the
details annually updated by those WPs claiming allowances, what possible need
is there for this further intrusion into Private Affairs?

How much do councils spend in ensuring that the large number
of War Pensioners in particular and pensioners in general get their true
entitlements?It is guaranteed that
there are whole swaths of council offices detailed to ensuring that immigrants,
illegal or otherwise, are not confronted with intrusive paperwork that every
indigenous pensioner dreads.If they are
there are paid legal advisors waiting in the wings to protect the interests of
the immigrant.Where are these
professional scavengers when it comes to Former Servicemen’s Rights?And where are the officers of the council
when a War Pensioner needs assistance?Learning how to make applications for promotion so to get the Sharon
Shoesmith handshake?

What is more insidious and explains the great angst amongst former
and recently dismissed Royal British Legion workers is that the charity has
-according to those discontent former employees - taken its foot off the pedal and allegedly for increased personal pensions and
salaries, for the few at the top, appear now are no longer fulfilling their
commitments to the Veterans.Is there
some secret deal going on between the Government, local councils and sleeping
MP’s to have War Pensioners Rights summarily made public before being revoked
to pay for past Governments massive welcoming to the Abu Hamza’s and Abu
Qatada's, whose families appear to gain
all the benefits of Veterans sacrifices.Those who worked in welfare for Veterans share the anger and utter
dismay that the open door policy has exposed into Britain’s welfare system that it does not extend
to those whose efforts provided the security and stability for Governments
excesses, the Armed Forces and especially the wounded veterans.

Has anyone asked their MP to inquire why or even what this
intrusion into veteran’s privacy is all about?Blackpool South’s MP was until recently a government spokesperson on
Veteran Affairs.Let’s wait and see just
what he will say on the subject.I have
a ten pound bet with William Hill that he will say nothing.Afterall, former Blackpool veteran Andy
Miller fell under his remit and the family are still waiting for answers let
alone an acknowledgement of correspondence. Well, it only took the Hillsborough
Families 23 year to get a proper investigation into the 96 deaths...

'Entitlement' my arse, I paid good money for my State Pension and other benefits!!!!
Just because they borrowed that money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of
charity or handout !! Gold plated MP pensions and Civil Service Government
benefits, aka free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid
holidays, 20 weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare,
and they have the nerve to call me a 'greedy pensioner' and my retirement, an 'entitlement'
!!!!!!.....scroll down................

What the HELL's wrong with us??? WAKE UP
BRITAIN !!!!

Someone please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the people that run this
country!!!!!!

In the last few months we have provided aid to India, Greece and Turkey. And
now Afghanistan , Pakistan ...... home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of
POUNDS!!!

Our retirees living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any
breaks while our government and religious organisations pour Hundreds of Billions
of ££££'s and tons of food to foreign countries!

They call Old Age Security and Healthcare an entitlement even though most of us
have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it's time for us to
collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow
from it in the first place?
We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for
the adoption of foreign orphans.

GREAT BRITAIN: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going
to bed hungry, hospitals being closed, average income families who can't afford
dental care, elderly going without 'needed' med's and having to travel 100's of
miles for medical care with no reimbursement of
cost, vehicles we can't afford fuel for, lack of affordable housing, and mentally
ill without treatment - etc., etc.

YET.....
They have a 'benefit' for the people of foreign countries...ships and planes lining
up with food, water, tents, clothes, bedding, doctors, and medical supplies.

Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.

Sad isn't it?

99% of people won't have the guts to forward this. I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did.

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Interview with a child molester,(click to watch Andrew Neil squirm in the perverts company) a highly sort after society figure and the recipient of an unearned Green Beret. How do I know? Ask Bootieboy, as we were both on the Field Training Staff at Lympstone at the time. Savile never completed any part of the Commando course, although he covered the 30 mile circuit, he completed it in over 11 hours and with a lot of assistance from staff. Recruits doing the course in over 7 hours failed and were discharged from the Marines. His only discharge was an OBE! Other Buggers Expense?

Monday, 17 December 2012

LANCASHIRE’S new police commissioner
today defended himself amid allegations he ‘double claimed’ travelling
expenses. Fleetwood Councillor Clive
Grunshaw is facing calls to resign just a month after being elected to the
£85,000-a-year position of Police and Crime Commissioner. Coun Grunshaw, who is also a Labour
Lancashire County and Wyre Borough councillor, served on the Lancashire Police
Authority before it was replaced by the new PCC post. Thus the smears against Cllr Grunshaw hit the local gasjet. A brief perusal on the internet has found this
piece of intriguing journalism @ http://topofthecops.com/A joint investigation by TopOfTheCops
and the Sunday Times (£) this week has uncovered
evidence that Lancashire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw has
discovered time travel. Police experts will be excited that Grunshaw’s time
machine will give previously unthinkable
insight into criminal investigation, as officers will be able to travel back to
the scene of a crime and observe it take place, allowing offenders to be
identified. Philosophers and theoretical physicists will however be divided on
whether Grunshaw’s discovery can safely be used to prevent crime from happening
in the first place, due to the possible disruption such interventions may cause
with the time-space continuum.

With murder and other such heinous crimes being poorly investigated by
Lancashire’s finest, what value the £85k plus expenses for Mr Grunshaw to
monitor and hold the Lancashire Plodders to account?The system works something like this.
An incident is reported and the Worlds Best move in to investigate. In the event of death, mysterious
disappearance, a report is sent all over the place and eventually arrives at
the Coroners desk. As with Hillsborough,
the Coroner partially reads and makes a determination as to the parameters of
any subsequent investigation and possible inquest. If the Coroner gets it wrong, as with
Hillsborough and the Corporate Homicide of Mr Robert Michael Miller, the capacity
for justice is controlled by the politicians at Westminster in the person of
the Attorney General. Small wonder
justice is sadly missing for victims and their families with such a labyrinthine
system. It has taken 23 years for the
Hillsborough families to have the original coroners verdicts passed on to the
Court for Appeal when the evidence of malfeasance was obvious to everyone
outside of the Police and legal professions.
What the authorities never envisaged with Hillsborough is that the
cameras would keep rolling and evidence that clearly contradicted the verdict
was available for those who have the tenacity and desire to find them.What makes the position of Cllr Grunshaw untenable is that he HAS to be
beyond reproach as his position demands scrupulous credentials – that should
eliminate any politician from applying for the Post. As one Lancashire Labour MP confessed to me, he
had no legal expertise in drafting law or even understanding statute. He/she get £67k pa for not being able to do
their job. Is Cllr Grunshaw on an extra
stipend for pushing the boundaries of credibility even deep into the public
wallet?So an approach to Councillor Grunshaw could be a complete waste of everyone's time?

Saturday, 15 December 2012

I have decided to cut down on the ALE this Muslimmas and do a little exercise before those F**king Politicians declare Old Age illegal.

Or before that Bar Steward in Red pinches my box of Pinot Noir.Knees bent, place vassel in bony gap, screw then pull. If you think this is anything other than what it is, then you should join Jim Savile and his backers on Molesters Row @ the BBC.If you can remember what all this cold season is about, it is not the American Jingle Bells and excessive Pay day Loans, its about offering good will to All Men. That is except that deluded 15% of the population who thought that voting for a Police Commissar was a spiffing idea. And all those others who want our children to be raised in a NEW Africa/Pakistan which was built as London, Blackburn, Bradford. And those arsewipes who are aiming to take War Pensions off disabled Veterans to pay for mass immigration.To all Christian(s) a Merry Christmas. To the rest get back to work and stop begging for hand-outs.

Thursday, 13 December 2012

THE
Prime Minister refused yesterday to launch a public inquiry into the loyalist
murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane after shocking levels of State
involvement were outlined in a Government review.

David
Cameron told the Commons that the collusion detailed was totally unacceptable
and reiterated his previous apology to Mr Finucane’s family, but insisted an
inquiry would not shed any more light on the scandal.

The
500-page review of the case by QC Sir Desmond de Silva heavily criticised the
actions of a number of State employees, who he said “furthered and facilitated”
the shooting of the 38-year-old father-of-three by the Ulster Defence
Association in 1989.

The
collusion outlined by Sir Desmond included spreading malicious propaganda that
Mr Finucane was sympathetic to the IRA; one or possibly more police officers
proposing him as a target to loyalists; and the mishandling of State agents
inside the UDA who were involved in the murder.

But
Sir Desmond found no evidence of an over-arching conspiracy by the authorities
to target Mr Finucane.

Announcing
the findings of the report at Westminster, Mr Cameron said: “Collusion should
never, ever happen.

The political dogmatic, the family and those with a Sectarian Agenda would
never accept any conclusion other than their own. A browse through Blackpool’s impoverished
media platform, the infamous Blackpool Gasjet, reveals all the diverse aspects
of ignorance and ineptitude that has become endemic in a nation that once led
the world in intellectual thinking and progressive tolerance. None access to Justice for the families of
heinous criminality is nothing new as a privileged section of society protects its corner
and heritage from the scrutiny that only history can provide, depending on whether
history is allowed to be taught in a system that believe that all that is
historic is the Slave Trade, the Jewish Holocaust and Soviet Social evolution, but never its abject failure.Lancashire has a legacy of not getting Justice as Hillsborough, Nurse Clough
and the murder of Andy Miller illuminate brighter (sic) than the dimming Local
Illuminations. The pandering to the unacceptable demand that we should genuflect
to the authority of Personality Culture has blinded both the Judiciary and
Parliament to the facts that the disease of corrupt thinking and indifference
flows freely through the cancerous body of British Nationhood. British heroes are no longer Nelson, Newton, Shakespeare
or even an Alfred called the Great or Robert of the Spider legend. Instead we have had Savile, Gary Glitter, female nondescripts who can flaunt suggestible sexuality upon a susceptible drug
subdued generation, foreign footballers who prance more like Nureyev than
Duncan Edwards, mindless fictional characters from television programmes that
pander only to the brain dead belief that their presentation of life is real-
and they mean REAL. Yet all around us are true heroes, though sadly the only
time we hear about them is when their bodies are repatriated in Union Flag
adorned boxes. How many of Britain’s
modern morons can tell us who Channing Day is and what she does to benefit
humanity? As a conclusion the sacrifices of this young lady and the debt we owes her
family is being eclipsed under the jackboot of dishonesty and selective morality. How can it be right that Rebecca Brookes gets
a multi-million pound thank you from a corrupt media emperor whilst still
facing corruption charges herself?

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

James Jackson is the bestselling author of historical thrillers
including Blood Rock and Pilgrim. As a postgraduate he specialized in analysing
future trends in international terrorism, was Called to the Bar, and worked for
many years as a political-risk consultant. His non-fiction publications include
The Counter-terrorist Handbook. He is based in London .

There
are no miracles in Africa - A self destructing continent
–

“WHY AFRICA HAS GONE TO
HELL”

White Zimbabweans used to
tell a joke—what is the difference between a tourist and a racist? The answer —
about a week.

Few seem to
joke any more. Indeed, the last time anyone laughed out there was over the
memorable head-line “BANANA CHARGED WITH SODOMY” (relating to the Reverend
Canaan Banana and his alleged proclivities). Zimbabwe was just the latest
African state to squander its potential, to swap civil society for civil strife
and pile high its corpses. Then the wrecking virus moves on and a fresh spasm of
violence erupts elsewhere. Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, even
Kenya. Take your pick, for it is the essence of Africa, the recurring A-Z of
horror. Therefore, as surely as Nelson Mandela took those steps from captivity
to freedom, his own country will doubtless shuffle into chaos and
ruin.

Mark my words. One
day it will be the turn of South Africa to revert to type, its farms that lie
wasted and its towns that are battle zones, its dreams and expectations that lie
rotting on the veld. That is the way of things. Africa rarely surprises, it
simply continues to appal.

When interviewed on BBC Radio, the legendary
South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela spoke of the 350-year struggle for
freedom by blacks in South Africa . The man might play his trumpet like a dream,
but he talks arrant nonsense. What he has bought into is a false narrative that
rewrites history and plays upon post-colonial liberal angst. The construct is as
follows: white, inglorious and bad; black, noble and good; empire, bad;
independence, good; the west, bad; the African, good. Forgotten in all this is
that while Europeans were settling and spreading from the Cape, the psychopathic
Shaka Zulu was employing his Impi to crush everyone - including the Xhosa - in
his path, and the Xhosa were themselves busy slaughtering Bushmen and
Hottentots. Yet it is the whites who take the rap, for it was they who won the
skirmishes along the Fish and Blood Rivers and who eventually gained the
prize.

What suffers is the
truth, and—of course— Africa. We are so cowed by the moist-eyed mantras of the
left and the oath-laden platitudes of Bono and Geldof, we are forced to accept
collective responsibility for the bloody mess that is now Africa. It paralyses
us while excusing the black continent and its rulers.

Whenever I hear people agitate for the
freezing of Third World debt, I want to shout aloud for the freezing of those
myriad overseas bank accounts held by black African leaders (President Mobutu of
Zaire alone is believed to have squirreled away well over $10 billion). Whenever
apartheid is held up as a blueprint for evil, I want to mention Bokassa snacking
on human remains, Amin clogging a hydro-electric dam with floating corpses, the
President of Equatorial Guinea crucifying victims along the roadway from his
airport. Whenever slavery is dredged up, I want to remind everyone the Arabs
were there before us, the native Ashanti and others were no slouches at the
game, and it remains extant in places like the Ivory Coast. Whenever I hear the
Aids pandemic somehow blamed on western indifference, I want to point to the
African native practice of dry sex, the hobby-like prevalence of rape and the
clumps of despotic black leaders who deny a link between the disease and HIV and
who block the provision of anti-retrovirals.

And whenever Africans
bleat of imperialism and colonialism, I want to campaign for the demolition of
every road, college, and hospital we ever built to let them start again. It is
time they governed themselves. Yet few play the victim card quite so expertly as
black Africans; few are quite so gullible as the white
liberal-left.

“On the eve of this millennium, Nelson Mandela
and friends lit candles mapping the shape of their continent and declared the
Twenty-first Century would belong to Africa. It’s a pity that for every Mandela,
there are over a hundred Robert Mugabes.”

So Britain had an empire and Britain did
slavery. Boo hoo. Deal with it. Move on. Slavery ended here over two hundred
years ago. More recently, there were tens of millions of innocents enslaved or
killed in Europe by the twin industrialised evils of Nazism and Stalinism. My
own first cousins—twin brothers aged sixteen—died down a Soviet salt mine. I
need no lecture on shackles and neck-irons. Most of us are descendants of both
oppressors and oppressed; most of us get over it. Mind you, I am tempted by
thoughts of compensation from Scandinavia for the wickedness of its Viking raids
and its slaving-hub on the Liffe. As for the 1066 invasion of England by William
the Bastard…

The white
man’s burden is guilt over Africa (the black man’s is sentimentality), and we
are blind for it. We have tipped hundreds of billions of aid-dollars into Africa
without first ensuring proper governance. We encourage NGOs and food-parcels and
have built a culture of dependency. We shy away from making criticism, tiptoe
around the crassness of the African Union and flinch at every anti-western jibe.
The result is a free-for-all for every syphilitic black despot and his coterie
of family functionaries.

Africa casts a long and toxic shadow across
our consciousness. It is patronised and allowed to underperform, so too its
distant black diaspora. A black London pupil is excluded from his school, not
because he is lazy, stupid or disruptive, but because that school is apparently
racist; a black youth is pulled over by the police, not because black males
commit over eighty percent of street crime, but because the authorities are
somehow corrupted by prejudice. Thus the tale continues. Excuse is everywhere
and a sense of responsibility nowhere. You will rarely find either a black
national leader in Africa or a black community leader in the west prepared to
put up his hands and say it is our problem, our fault. Those who look to Africa
for their roots, role-models and inspiration are worshipping false gods. And
like all false gods, the feet are of clay, the snouts long and designed for the
trough, and the torture-cells generally well-equipped.

I once met the son of a Liberian government
minister and asked if he had seen video-footage of his former president Samuel
Doe being tortured to death. ‘Of course’, he replied with a smile. ‘Everyone
has’. They cut off the ears of Doe and force-fed them to him. His successor, the
warlord Charles Taylor, was elected in a landslide result using the campaign
slogan “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him”. Nice people.
Liberia was founded and colonised by black Americans to demonstrate what slave
stock could achieve. They certainly showed us. Forgive my heretical belief that
had a black instead of a white tribe earlier come to dominate South Africa, its
opponents would not have been banished to Robben island. They would have been
butchered and buried there.

When asked about the problem of Africa, Harold
Macmillan suggested building a high wall around the continent and every century
or so removing a brick to check on progress. I suspect that over entire
millennia, the view would prove bleak and unvarying.

Visiting a state in West Africa a few years
ago, I wandered onto a beach and marvelled at the golden sands and at the
sunlight catching on the Atlantic surf. It allowed me to forget for a moment the
local news that day of soldiers seizing a schoolboy and pitching him head-first
into an operating cement-machine. Almost forget. Then I spotted a group of
villagers beating a stray dog to death for their sport. A metaphor of sorts for
all that is wrong, another link in a word-association chain that goes something
like Famine… Drought… Overpopulation… Deforestation… Conflict… Barbarism…
Cruelty… Machetes… Child Soldiers… Massacres… Diamonds… Warlords…Tyranny…
Corruption… Despair… Disease… Aids… Africa .

Monday, 3 December 2012

FIGURES released today by Blackpool Teaching
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust show mortality rates for the area are now at
their lowest levels ever and below the national average.

This is contrary to data published by the Dr Foster Hospital Guide which uses figures dating
back to April 2011.

Blackpool
is one of the most deprived areas in England with lower than average life
expectancy. The town has higher than average deaths related to alcohol,
smoking, IV drug use and heart disease.

Traditionally
Blackpool has had high mortality figures and, during 2012, we have been undertaking
intensive work to understand why we appear to be so badly affected and devise plans
to improve.

Enhancing
quality of care and patient safety is, and always has been, a priority for the
Trust and standards of clinical care are among the highest in the country.

In
the UK there are three common mortality measures; the Hospital Standardised
Mortality Rates (HSMR), owned by Dr Foster, the Risk Adjusted Mortality Index
(RAMI), owned by CHKS and the newly developed Summary Hospital Mortality Index
(SHMI) which was commissioned by the Department for Health.

For
all three a comparison is made between the number of actual deaths for an
individual population and the expected number of deaths for the hospital
population of England and Wales. A score
of 100 is taken as the average.

SHMI
and HSMR are different from RAMI as they do not adjust in the same way for
deprivation, which can put areas such as Blackpool
at a disadvantage.

The
Trust has fared badly on SHMI and HSMR, so in March 2012 we commissioned an
independent review of mortality data by The Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA),
a North West healthcare improvement body, which concluded there were no areas
of concern relating to patient care.

Following
the report the Trust highlighted two key areas for review, administrative and
clinical, attention to which has now resulted in substantial improvements in
mortality figures.

All
three mortality indicators use internationally recognised codes derived from
diagnostic information recorded on the patient’s admission to hospital.
According to the mortality indicators the Trust appeared to have a
disproportionate number of deaths in the ‘lower’ risk categories.

This
finding was, in part, because a relatively high proportion of admission
diagnostic coding was derived from symptoms and signs rather than true underlying
cause. An example might be the patient whose admission code reflected only their
breathlessness (i.e. the sign and symptom) rather than the true underlying
diagnosis of lung cancer - making the patient appear to be low risk.

A
significant amount of recent work has been undertaken to address this and other
coding ambiguities to better reflect patient illness severity on admission.

The
Trust has also implemented a number of further measures to help assure the
quality of patient care. These measures include a recruitment drive to increase
the doctor and nurse ratio per bed and care pathways targeted at high risk patient
groups in order to optimise the quality of care. Each care pathway comprises
one or more specific care bundles based on established best practice relating
to management of the specific disease process in question.

The
Trust is also one of eight NHS organisations taking part in a North West
transparency pilot aimed at improving the quality and safety of patient care

Since
this work started our internal monthly figures have shown significant improvement.
This, however, is not reflected in the latest Dr Foster report which reflects
the period between April 2011 and March 2012.

Our most recent RAMI
figures are

August 2012: 74 compared to the national
figure for similar sized (peer) Trusts of 80.

August 2011: 100 compared to a peer of 86.

HSMR figures are:

August
2012:99 compared to a national average
of 100

August
2011: 124 compared to a national average of 100

SHMI figures are:

August
2012: 96.54 compared to a national average of 100

August
2011: 131.18 compared to a national average of 100

Dr
Mark O’Donnell, the Trust’s Medical Director, explained: “The AQuA report looked at a range of factors that might explain high
mortality rates and highlighted that there were no areas of clinical concern
for the Trust and reassured
us that there were no issues around the care we give our patients.

“While the Trust had already undertaken much
improvement work there were nevertheless further steps which we believed we
needed to take to tackle mortality rates. “We are
committed to improving the outcomes for patients and the safety of our services
and drew up a detailed action plan which covered areas such as clinical
leadership, the development of a specific mortality reduction plan and more
work with primary care colleagues to improve end of life care planning.’’

The
Trust has set up a Mortality Steering Group and developed an Action Plan which
aims to:

·Extend
7-day working for specialist nurses

·Improve
engagement between coders and clinicians

·Prioritise
recruitment across all clinical divisions to increase doctor and nurse ratio
per bed – to date 10 locum vacancies have been converted to substantive posts
and two extra emergency department consultants and two advanced practitioners
have been recruited

·Review
the use of care bundles, an expected path of care pertaining to a particular
condition, to improve expected outcomes through best practice standards. These
have now been developed in areas such as pneumonia, lung disease, heart
failure, heart disease and hip fractures.

·Implement
the scanning of existing paper-based medical records to ensure patient case
notes are available on demand – this is now ongoing through our Vision
programme

·Increase
incident reporting using the Talk Safe training programme to ensure care
provided is as safe as possible and when things do go wrong the right action is
taken.

Blackpool
Teaching Hospitals has a strong track record in overall quality of care and
safety for patients. The organisation has been recognised nationally for the
considerable work done on patient safety winning two Patient Safety Awards in
maternity and data information management in 2012 and was the only Trust in the
country to win two awards at the National Patient Safety Awards in 2011.

Hospital
infection rates have fallen to their lowest rates ever. Last year the Trust
reported just two cases of MRSA and a reduction of 47.5 per cent over the year
in clostridium difficile resulting in
just 53 cases.

All
quality and safety data on the Trust’s performance, including mortality, is
publicly available on the Trust’s website www.bfwh.nhs.uk

Mortality
figures August 2011 to August 2012

The Trust seem capable of publishing these complicated reports, but can they give a simple answer to a simple question? A GP refers a patient to the Trust for a simple intrusive operation which should take about four minutes. Why does the GP not know that the operation requested is not performed by the department to whom the patient has been sent/referred? The patient is given several appointments and even surgery but not for the original problem/complaint. There then ensues a protracted tennis game between the GP and the hospital about the treatment. The patient in the mean time is seeking there own remedy by trying to find where he/she can have the procedure done quickly, probably private! If you think this is obscure then try being the person with hemorrhoids, piles of troubles for them and they would be grapeful for that bunch to be harvested without unnecessary delay. Surely the message has to be, do the simple things well and remember what your ethos ought to be - CARE. This is an administrative problem and ought to be solved by a telephone call. Although many patients are old and infirm, many elderly people still have all their wits about them but not their youthful vigor. It is their bodies that have deserted them, not their brains.